Issues with Cockapoo during the night.
Discussion
Hi,
We have a 5 year old female Cockapoo (that is pathetically anxious) that is causing us major night time issues, and my wife and I are beyond exhausted.
She sleeps downstairs in a large crate and at an early stage would gently start yelping and whining at about 5.30am to 6am. We have to get up, let her outside for either a wee or a poo and then let her on our bed (which is what it's all about and our big mistake from early on). We've reluctantly accepted this as we can then get back to sleep for an hour. Whilst tiring, we had to accept this.
The last 3 months or so there is no longer the gentle yelping or whining, but suddenly full on loud barking usually around 4am to 5am. It's been as early as 2am. She isn't being woken by anything else and it's only to get our attention so that she can get on our bed. No amount of speaking calmly to shouting will get her to stop for more than a few minutes. We are then usually awake from then on!
She has previously (last year) been sleeping without a crate in an adjacent bedroom, but still the routine continued. Following a leg injury this year she had to stay in the crate for some time.
Prior to that we had a crate in our bedroom which didn't work as she would just keep us awake pacing back and forth.
We've previously tried a calming infuser, a calming coat, gentle music, a reactive barking gadget and other things without any success.
Does anybody have any ideas as we are both beyond exhausted and it's negatively influencing almost every aspect of our lives?
As a side note, if we go out during the day, for up to 4 hours, she barks and howls throughout. We are lucky that we live in a detached house as otherwise we're not sure whether we could keep her.
We have a 5 year old female Cockapoo (that is pathetically anxious) that is causing us major night time issues, and my wife and I are beyond exhausted.
She sleeps downstairs in a large crate and at an early stage would gently start yelping and whining at about 5.30am to 6am. We have to get up, let her outside for either a wee or a poo and then let her on our bed (which is what it's all about and our big mistake from early on). We've reluctantly accepted this as we can then get back to sleep for an hour. Whilst tiring, we had to accept this.
The last 3 months or so there is no longer the gentle yelping or whining, but suddenly full on loud barking usually around 4am to 5am. It's been as early as 2am. She isn't being woken by anything else and it's only to get our attention so that she can get on our bed. No amount of speaking calmly to shouting will get her to stop for more than a few minutes. We are then usually awake from then on!
She has previously (last year) been sleeping without a crate in an adjacent bedroom, but still the routine continued. Following a leg injury this year she had to stay in the crate for some time.
Prior to that we had a crate in our bedroom which didn't work as she would just keep us awake pacing back and forth.
We've previously tried a calming infuser, a calming coat, gentle music, a reactive barking gadget and other things without any success.
Does anybody have any ideas as we are both beyond exhausted and it's negatively influencing almost every aspect of our lives?
As a side note, if we go out during the day, for up to 4 hours, she barks and howls throughout. We are lucky that we live in a detached house as otherwise we're not sure whether we could keep her.
This doesn't sound unfamiliar.
The honest answer to the first bit I'd ditch the crate, give in, let the dog sleep where they want at first. They'll get bored and find somewhere to sleep once they don't have the issue with forced separation. They dont like the crate and they want to option to hang around but ultimately apart from some tokenism around the process of going to bed they usually get bored of it after a while. Establishing a routine doesn't hurt.
Going out stuff usually seems to be a being left behind/separation thing, what I saw work was to make it clear that there were different kinds of going out ('going to the shops') with a known pattern and to provide a high value reward before and after. That shifted it to being a quiet waiting process with an expected end instead of concern for missing out/being left. Seemed to work but would depend on the dog.
The honest answer to the first bit I'd ditch the crate, give in, let the dog sleep where they want at first. They'll get bored and find somewhere to sleep once they don't have the issue with forced separation. They dont like the crate and they want to option to hang around but ultimately apart from some tokenism around the process of going to bed they usually get bored of it after a while. Establishing a routine doesn't hurt.
Going out stuff usually seems to be a being left behind/separation thing, what I saw work was to make it clear that there were different kinds of going out ('going to the shops') with a known pattern and to provide a high value reward before and after. That shifted it to being a quiet waiting process with an expected end instead of concern for missing out/being left. Seemed to work but would depend on the dog.
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